Born in Srinagar, Kashmir, Subhash Kak received his Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His work has been showcased in the popular media including Discovery and History channels, PBS, Dutch Public TV OHM, and most recently in a documentary on music (www.ragaunveiled.com). His discovery of a long-forgotten astronomy of the ancient world has been called "revolutionary" and "epoch-making". The literary scholar Govind Chandra Pande compared his poetry to that of William Wordsworth.

His awards include Science Academy Medal of the Indian National Science Academy (1977), UNESCO Tokten Award (1986), National Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (2001), and Distinguished Alumni of IIT Delhi (2002).